The economic malaise and its perils

Exploring the near and long-term political and societal risks arising from the current economic malaise.

It has been a busy few days at the World Economic Forum in Davos, culminating in a special debate which you will see this week on Counting the Cost.

There were a number of 'firsts' involved. Not only was this the first time we had brought the programme to Davos, but the first time (I think) that we had web-casted a live debate programme, and taken live questions over twitter. Certainly it was the first time I had been involved in something like that.

And the debate turned out to be fantastic. As I tweeted from the green room before it started: "Sitting in a room with a President, a PM, a deputy PM, a CEO, an economist and a labour chief". Honestly, how often can any programme manage such a cast in one show? It really is the beauty of the Davos gathering which allows us such top-level access.

We actually called the debate 'The economic malaise and its perils', but if I am honest, that turned out to be a bit of a misnomer.

Our panel - which comprised Olarfur Ragnar Grimsson, the president of Iceland; Mohd Najib Bin tun Abdul Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia; Ali Babacan, the deputy prime minister (in charge of economy) of Turkey; Jim Hagemann Snabe, the CEO of SAP; Guy Ryder, the head of the International Labour Organisation; and Li Daokui, a former advisor to the People's Bank of China - was relently optimistic.

They acknowledged how bad things are, particularly with unemployment which formed the bulk of our debate, but they came armed with ideas and solutions. Even examples of things which had improved economies in the past. I hope people, be they politicians or businessmen, listen to what our guests had to say.

Watch each week at the following times GMT: Friday: 2230; Saturday: 0930; Sunday: 0330; Monday: 1630. Click here for more Counting the Cost.

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